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Greenbelt Alliance In the News

March 15, 2005

Oakley wants to annex area caught in urban growth debate

Out along East Cypress Road and up Bethel Island Road, a series of new neighborhoods -- with 5,000 or more homes -- will sprout out of the soggy soil in the next few years.

Because of this rapid growth, the area has become a key chip in the political poker game over where to draw Contra Costa's urban growth boundary.

The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors approved most of the homes a decade ago, and several years more could pass before the entire area is built out. In the meantime, Oakley is racing to annex more than 2,500 acres of unincorporated land between Jersey Island Road and Sand Mound Slough so it can have some control over how the area is developed.

"I think we're being slightly reactionary in terms of do we want it to be developed by the county or under our specific plan," said Oakley Mayor Pat Anderson.

Because the county already approved the developments, it's unlikely that Oakley, a city of about 26,000 people, could prevent them being built even if it wanted to. If the annexation is approved, however, the city will have more control over what the projects look like and what kind of traffic improvements and other mitigations developers are responsible for.

If the city controls the land, which is already within its sphere of influence, developers will have to meet Oakley's more finicky standards, which demand "aesthetically pleasing" designs and better traffic planning, Anderson said.

"We're trying to plan for the future and we constantly hear from our constituents that transportation infrastructure is a key issue, as well as a mix of housing types. I think this planning will bring us a community that is very well thought out," she said.

On the 1,114 developable acres already inside the city limits along Cypress Corridor, Oakley has approved a middle school, 541 single family homes and 96 apartment units. On the land the city is eyeing for annexation, the county has already approved 4,630 homes.

The annexation area also includes as many as four new schools, a firehouse, several man-made lakes, a golf course and several hundred thousand square feet of commercial development.

Critics say the Cypress Corridor is a terrible place to build because it sits below sea level, is dominated by inadequate two-lane country roads and abuts an important wetlands restoration project.

"It's a very difficult site for development," said David Reid of the Greenbelt Alliance.

Unease also reigns in neighboring Knightsen, an unincorporated hamlet of just 1,200 people, that would be nearly surrounded by Oakley if the annexation is approved.

"I don't know how to comment on 5,000 houses as fast as they can build them," said John Gonzales, a member of the Knightsen Community Services District Board. "This massive growth ... it's going to affect us in a large way. Hopefully we'll still be able to retain our identity, retain our rural atmosphere."

A "doggone good percentage" of the new residents will be commuting right through Knightsen on their way to Vasco Road, the region's already-clogged artery to Interstate 580, Gonzales said.

Although the voter-approved Measure J allocation of $94.5 million for improvements to Vasco, State Route 4 Bypass, the Byron Highway and Highway 4 will ease some of the congestion, Knightsen leaders worry it won't be enough to keep their little town from drowning in traffic.

"The average person in Knightsen hasn't really figured out the impact of all this development, but I'll tell you right now we have traffic going through here and nobody's doing anything about the roads," said Seth Cockrell, chairman of the Community Services District Board.

"Until the Highway 4 Bypass is completed, we'll still get truck traffic through Knightsen, because they don't want to sit in gridlock going through Brentwood," Cockrell said.

Gonzales also worries that all the new homes will end up "sucking out water from the ground," lowering the water table and worsening water quality.

One of the biggest developments in the area is Shea Homes' upscale Summer Lake project, with homes as large as 4,300 square feet and costing upward of $400,000. The entire 686-acre, 1,330-home neighborhood will be surrounded by a new levee at the end of Cypress Road, north of Knightsen.

Although the developer will make some improvements to the roads in the area -- including the dangerous intersection of Bethel Island and East Cypress roads -- it has no obligation to Knightsen, said Blake Reinhardt, Shea's community planning manager.

As for the water table, Reinhardt said that should remain unaffected because Shea is building a 3.5-mile, 24-inch water main to serve Summer Lake and future projects. The water will come from the Diablo Water District, which draws from the Delta, not the ground water.

The wells being dug for the project are for emergency water supplies only, he said, in case the pipeline fails, for example.

In addition to the more conventional problems that dog development projects in the region, the entire Cypress Corridor annexation area has been a key bargaining chip in the rancorous talks about where to draw Contra Costa's urban growth boundary.

Supervisor Federal Glover is the chairman of the Local Agency Formation Commission, which decides whether cities can annex land. He's also a strong advocate for holding the urban limit line where it is now.

Measure J requires that the cities and county craft "a mutually agreed-upon urban limit line," which will be up for a countywide vote by November 2006. Elected officials from all over the county have so far failed to agree on a proposal to send voters, but the talks continue.

In part to keep Glover from opposing its annexation request, Oakley has consistently sided with the supervisor during countywide urban limit line negotiations.

"I'm going to consider what's in front of me," Glover said. "I would favor them more if they support my good position (on the urban limit line), but I'm not tying anybody's hands. I haven't mentioned it to anybody on a formal basis."

Oakley has yet to submit an annexation request to LAFCO but is in the process of drawing up a specific plan for the area and hopes to be 2,500-acres larger by November, Anderson said.

Regardless of whether the city or county controls the land, however, the Cypress Corridor will grow. That growth will bring more people, more cars and more of the stress that has plagued the booming East County region for years.

The decisions about the area will determine how much that stress is eased.

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